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Between 1911 and 1914, the conflicts between Italy and the Ottoman Empire, together with the Balkan wars that followed, transformed European politics. With contributions from leading, international historians, this volume offers a comprehensive account of the wars before the Great War and surveys the impact of these conflicts on European diplomacy, military planning, popular opinion and their role in undermining international stability in the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. Placing these conflicts at the centre of European history, the authors provide fresh insights on the origins of World War I, emphasizing the importance of developments on the European periphery in driving change across the continent. Nation and empire, great powers and small states, Christian and Muslim, violent and peaceful, civilized and barbaric - the book evaluates core issues which defined European politics to show how they were encapsulated in the wars before the Great War.

Offers a comprehensive account of the wars before the Great War

Presents fresh conclusions that transcend conventional narratives of great power politics

Highlights the role of the Balkan states and Ottoman Empire in undermining international security in the years leading to the outbreak of World War I

Reviews & endorsements

"Each chapter provides detailed footnotes and is very clearly organized and written (goals stated, assumptions outlined, and conclusions reached). Such clarity makes this book ideal for undergraduate history students … Highly recommended."
Choice

'These essays will prove valuable reading for the serious student of the Great War and European military and diplomatic institutions in the early twentieth century.'
NYMAS Review

'… the range of historical scholarship, presented with a consistence of clarity and quality rarely seen in edited volumes of this length, distinguishes The Wars before the Great War as essential reading for anybody wishing to cultivate a more comprehensive understating of the origins of the First World War.'
Samuel Foster, European History Quarterly

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Product details

Date Published: May 2015

format: Hardback

isbn: 9781107063471

length: 392pages

dimensions: 229 x 150 x 30 mm

weight: 0.69kg

availability: Available

Table of Contents

1. Introduction William Mulligan, Andreas Rose and Dominik Geppert Part I. The Belligerents:2. Italy, Libya and the Balkans Francesco Caccomo 3. The Italian soldiers' experience in Libya, 1911–12 Vanda Wilcox 4. Ottoman diplomacy, the Balkan Wars, and the Great Powers Gul Tokay 5. Mass violence against civilians during the Balkan Wars Ugur Ungor Umit 6. War, civic mobilization and the shaping of the Ottoman home front during the Balkan Wars, 1912–13 Eyal Ginio 7. Civil and military relations in Serbia during 1903–14 John Paul Newman 8. The great expectations: political visions, military preparation, and national upsurge in Bulgaria at the onset of the Balkan Wars Nikolai Vukov Part II. The European Military between Real and Imagined Wars:9. The Russian threat calculation, 1910–14 Bruce Menning 10. The French military mind and the wars before the war Adrian Wettstein 11. The perception of the 'wars before the wars' in Austria-Hungary Gunther Kronenbitter 12. Between Manchuria and the Marne: the German army and its perception of the military conflicts of 1911–14 Markus Poehlmann Part III. The Wars and Great Power Politics:13. Austro-Hungarian foreign policy and the Balkan Wars Alma Hannig 14. German foreign policy and the Balkan Wars, 1912–14 Patrick Bormann 15. Entente diplomacy vs détente, 1911–14 T. G. Otte 16. Anglo-French relations and the wars before the war Friedrich Kiessling Part IV. The Wars in the European Public Sphere:17. The Habsburg Empire's German speaking public sphere and the First Balkan War Tamara Scheer 18. From 'illusion' and 'Angellism' to détente - British radicals and the Balkan Wars Andreas Rose 19. Uncivilised wars in civilised Europe? The perception of the Balkan Wars 1912–13 in English, German, and Irish newspapers and journals Florian Keisinger 20. Socialism and the challenge of the Balkan Wars 1912–13 Wolfgang Kruse.

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Editors

Dominik Geppert, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität BonnDominik Geppert is Professor of Modern History at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. His main fields of research are international history and intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as British and German contemporary history. He is the author of Pressekriege. Öffentlichkeit und Diplomatie in den deutsch-britischen Beziehungen, 1896–1912 (2007). His most recent book, Ein Europa, das es nicht gibt. Die fatale Sprengkraft des Euro (2013), puts the current European crisis in historical perspective.

William Mulligan, University College DublinWilliam Mulligan is senior lecturer in history at University College Dublin. He previously taught at the University of Glasgow and has held fellowships at Institutes of Advanced Study in Princeton and Berlin. He is the author of The Origins of the First World War (Cambridge, 2010) and The Great War for Peace (2014).

Andreas Rose, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität BonnAndreas Rose teaches Modern History at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. His work focuses on international history, naval as well as military history and the history of ideas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is author of Zwischen Empire und Kontinent. Britische Aussenpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg (2011), Deutsche Außenpolitik in der Ära Bismarck (2013) and Die Außenpolitik des wilhelminischen Kaiserreichs (2013). He is currently working on liberal-conservatism in the 1970s and 1980s.

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